For two decades, employers have steadily widened their definition of what it means to support a healthy workforce. Each era brought a new understanding of how people thrive—first physically, then mentally. Now, we’re in the decade where the missing piece has become impossible to ignore: Financial Wellness.

How We Got Here: Three Decades of Wellbeing Evolution

2000s: The Rise of Physical Wellness
This was the era of biometrics, health-risk assessments, and step-challenges. Employers focused on the body—cholesterol, blood pressure, BMI—and tied incentives to physical metrics. It was a necessary foundation, but one that treated wellness as a purely clinical concept.